At the core of an Ursuline education is a dynamic academic program that utilizes the global Ursuline network to prepare each student intellectually, personally, and spiritually to successfully engage and contribute to her community and world. There is a place for every type of girl at UA, and each student has the opportunity to forge her own path to explore interests, grow academically, and achieve goals during high school and after graduation into college.
We spoke to a couple of recent alumnae who shared where their paths after Ursuline have taken them and how UA prepared them for those opportunities and challenges.
Alayna Quigley
Bella Ott
Alayna Quigley ’24
During her four years at UA, Alayna was a dedicated student, athlete, and leader. In 2024, she was selected as one of Missouri’s 100 top academic students for the Class of 2024. She was a member of the National Honor Society, Ursuline’s chapter of Mu Alpha Theta, and the Spanish Honor Society. Alayna also served as a Student Ambassador, was a four-year athlete on the Tennis team, and served as House Captain in her senior year.
I am currently attending the University of Missouri-Columbia in the Trulaske College of Business, where I intend to major in Marketing.
Currently, I am involved in my sorority and the business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi. I just accepted an internship for the summer, then next semester I’m looking forward to getting more involved in the Mizzou community and in the business school specifically!
Ursuline taught me how to show respect for others. With Mizzou having a significantly large population, you meet a lot of different people, which is so much fun to experience, and Ursuline taught me to show respect and kindness to everyone I meet. Ursuline also taught me the importance of sisterhood! In my sorority, especially, I find it easy to get along with the other girls because I’ve come from a background where sisterhood connections are so valued, which is something I would never take for granted.
I’m thankful to have experienced the tight-knit community Ursuline brings!
Bella Ott ’23
During her time at UA, Bella achieved an A+ cumulative grade point average while taking the most challenging courses available to her. She was a member of the National Honor Society and both the Spanish and Mathematics Honor Societies, balancing her coursework with co-curricular activities such as Youth Leadership St. Louis, the Horizons Literary Magazine, the Environmental Club, competitive dance and volunteer work at Christ Community Lutheran School and Holy Child School. An avid computer coder, she was also a mainstay on the Ursuline Bearbotics team, where she now mentors the team as an alumna.
I am a student at Saint Louis University School of Science and Engineering, where I am majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Spanish.
I am the current president of SLU’s chapter of Girls Who Code, which helped launch SLU’s first annual student-led hackathon called HackSLU. I am also a member of the Society of Women Engineers. I am a Patrick P. Lee scholar and work in both IT and linguistics research at SLU. Outside of SLU, I am a Department of Defense SMART Scholar and a mentor for the UA Bearbotics team.
Ursuline helped prepare me for college through the many dual-credit options. I was able to enter SLU as a second-semester sophomore because of those dual enrollment credits. The English classes at UA also helped me immensely with writing essays. My freshman English professor even encouraged me to enter one of my essays into a SLU writing contest.
A piece of advice for current UA students: if you are not the athletic type, like I am, I highly encourage you to explore the robotics team. You do not need to know anything going on because you learn everything you need as you go! Robotics helped me build leadership, teamwork, and technical skills that helped me get to where I am today.
Ursuline Academy is proud of these alumnae for all the ways they live out the Ursuline values, all their achievements, and as they continue on their chosen paths to becoming who they are called to be.